Fare indicator



Sept. 29, 1942 R. POLL I FARE INDICATOR I Filed April 2, 1940 2Sheets-Sheet l m .J 2 w/ Sept. 29, 1942 R. POLL 2,297,431

FARE INDICATOR Filed April 2, 19.40 2 Sheets-Sheet 2 Jnvenfor': Edda!) Pii; M 62? Patented Sept. .29, 1942 FARE INDICATOR Rudolf Poll, Gaggenau,Baden, Germany, vested in the Alien Property Custodian Application April2, 1940, Serial No. 327,492 In Germany July 2, 1937 2 Claims.

My invention relates to improvements in fare indicators and moreparticularly in fare in-dicators of the type which do not indicate onlythe length of way, but also the load of the vehicle, the saidindications made by the indicator being the product of the length of wayby the load carried by the vehicle. In such indicators the indicatingmechanism is controlled by the displacement of the body of the vehiclerelatively to one of the axles thereof, the said displacement thedisplacement of the body of the vehicle to the indicating mechanism, thesaid clamping device being constructed so that a displacement lasting acertain length of time is transmitted to the indicating mechanism, whilethe oscillations of the body caused by the wheels running on unevenroads are not transmitted.

My invention also relates to various details of construction which willbe explained hereinafter and particularly pointed out in the appendedclaims.

For the purpose of explaining the invention two examples embodying thesame have been shown in the accompanying drawings in which the samereference characters have been used in all the views to indicatecorresponding parts. In said drawings,

Fig. 1 is a diagrammatical sectional elevation showing a vehicle havingthe fare indicator mounted thereon,

Fig. 2 is a diagrammatical elevation partly in section and partly inperspective view showing a ratchet disk forming the driving member ofthe indicating instrument, the mechanism controlled by the rotation ofone of the wheels of The body 60 of the vehicle is supported by means ofsprings 6| on a transverse member 6 on which the wheels 62 are mounted.On the said body fare indicating mechanism is mounted at 63 near thesteering wheel and below the frame I of the body damping mechanism 64 ismounted.

Referring now to Fig. 2, the fare indicator comprises a driving memberin the form of a ratchet disk 25 which is engaged by a pawl 24 actedupon by a spring 26. The said pawl is jointed at I 9 to a link 20pivotally mounted on the body of the vehicle at 2|. To the pivot bolt I9a link I8 is jointed which is acted upon by a spring 22 tending to holdthe same in engagement with a relatively fixed bolt 23. On the other endof the link I 8 a sleeve 36 is pivotally mounted which slides on a sliderod 35 depending from a crank 34 of a rock shaft 33 mounted in a bearing32. A crank arm 3| of the said rock shaft is connected by a link 30 witha crank arm 29 of a shaft 28 adapted to be rotated by a wheel 65 of thevehicle. The operative connection between the said wheel and the shaft28 may consist of a flexible shaft 66.

Normally the link I8 is held by the spring 22 in contact with the bolt23, in which position the sleeve 36 is located coaxially of the shaft33. But it is adapted to be pulled downwardly in opposition to thespring 22 by a rope I6 trained on pulleys such as IT and connected witha device controlled by the displacement of the body 66 of the vehicleunder the load thereof.

In the example shown in Fig. 2 the said mechanism is constructed asfollows: On a pair of brackets 2 depending from the frame I of the bodya shaft 3 is rockingly mounted to which a lever 4 is secured. The saidlever is connected by a link 5 with the transverse member 6 supported onthe wheel 62. On the shaft 3 a weighted body I is rotatably mountedwhich is formed about a part of its circumference with gear teeth I3meshing with the teeth of a rack I5 guided in bearings I4 depending fromthe frame I. To the weighted body I pins II and I2 are secured which areengaged by a pair of leaf springs 9 and ID secured to a block 8connected with the lever 4. To the rack I5 the rope I6 is secured.

The operation of the indicator is as follows: By the rotation of thewheel the shaft 28 is rotated through the intermediary of the shaft 66,and by means of the crank 29, the link 36 and the crank arm 3| rockingmovement is imparted to the shaft 33 and the rod 35 carried thereby. InFig. 2 the rotary movement of the shaft 28 and the rocking movement ofthe crank arm 3| and the rod 35 have been indicated in dotted lines.While the sleeve 36 is in the position shown in Fig. 2 and in axialalignment with the shaft 33 such rocking movement of the shaft 33 is nottransmitted to the link l8, and therefore no movement is transmitted bythe pawl 24 to the ratchet disk 25. The link 18 is in this position whenthe vehicle is unloaded. If however the Vehicle is loaded the spring 62is bent downwardly, and by the displacement of the body 65 the lever 4is turned anticlockwise, and such anticlockwise movement is transmittedthrough the leaf springs 9 and I to the weighted. body-l,

the rack l and the rope l6, which pulls the link 18 and the sleeve 36downwardly. Now the rocking movement of the shaft 33 causesreciprocating movement of the link l8 and the pawl 24 so that theratchet disk 25 is advanced, the de ree of the rotary movement of theratchet disk being the'product of the length of way of thevehicle by theload thereof.

When the vehicle drives on uneven roads the oscillations of the body 60are transmitted through th link'5 to the lever 4, and if the said linkis rigidly connected with the body 1, any oscillation will causdisplacement of th sleeve 35 on the rod 35, so'that the indication ofthe fare indicator are incorrect.v Therefore, in my improvedconstruction the body I is made .with a.

considerable mass, and the lever 4 acts on the said mass through theleaf springs 9 and It If now short impulses are transmitted by the link5 to the lever 4, such impulses are not transmitted to a considerableextent to the body 1, butthey are taken up by the springs 91 and I 0.Therefore these short impulses have no influence on the position of thelink I8 and the indication of the fare indicator. But.theidisplacementof the body iii! of the vehicle by the loadthereof istransmitted through the springs Sand H] which gradually turn theweighted body! anticlockwise.

In the modification shown in Fig. 4 the damping device acts by means ofa body. of liquid flowing through an orifice of reduced area and adaptedto. set the link l8 for varying the gear ratio of the mechanism' fortransmitting the movement from the wheel 65 to the ratchet disk 25. Asshown, the dampingxdevice consists of two containers 44 and 48 fixed tobrackets 31 and 38 secured toathebottom side of the frame I of the body60. of the vehicle. The said containers have elasticwalls '49 and 4|permitting the same to be expanded and. contracted. .The bottom 42 ofthe container 44 isv supportedon the trans verse member 6. through theintermediary of a spring 43 urging the said bottom 42 upwardly forcompressing the container 44; To the bottom 49 of the container'48 arms50 and 5| are the rope i6 is attached, which as shown is guided on aroller 53 and the rollers I1 shown in Fig. l, and which is connected tothe link l8 in the manner described with reference to Fig. 1.

The containers 44 and 48 communicate with each other through a pipe 46having an orifice 54 of reduced cross-sectional area. By the load of thevehicle the body 60 bearing on the usual vehicle springs BI is displaceddownwardly proportionally to the load, and by the said displacement thespring 43 is compressed. Thus the bottom 42 is forced upwardly and theliquid is partly expelled from the container 44 and into the container48, and it is gradually transmitted thereto through the orifice 54 ofreduced area, until equilibrium is reestablished. Thus th container 48is expanded, and the displacement of the bottom 49 istransmitted throughthe rope 16 to the link iii of the fare indicator shown in Fig. 2. Ifthe vehicle drives on uneven roads the jars exerted on the wheels aretransmitted to the bottom 42 of thecontainer 44 through the spring 43which is compressed accordingly, However, by reason of the orifice 54the. liquid from the receptacle 44 is not practically transmitted to'thecontainer 43, so that the said jars aretaken up by the spring 43' andhave no action on the indications of the fare indicator.

In the vehicle the fare indicating mechanism comprising the ratchet disk25 and the shaft 23 and 33 is preferably located near the seatof thedriver, while the damping deviceis mounted on the body of the vehiclenear one of the wheels, as is common in the art. However, I do not limitmyself to. this construction, For example the container 43 may belocated near the seat of the driver in which case a comparatively longpipe46 and a'short rope I5 is provided.

I claim: r

1. In combination, a vehicle having a body, an

' axle, and springs supporting. the body on the axle urging the bottom49 upwardly. To the arm 5| and adapted, as long as a load i in the body,to yield to lower the body substantially proportionally to the Weight ofthe load; the force due to said load on said axle being an axle load; anindicator; a drive means driven by the road wheels for driving theindicator; and ratiochanging means connected between the axle and bodyfor changing the driving ratio of the driving means substantiallyproportionally to said axle load; whereby the indicatorindicates'substantially a function of the product of the distance oftravel and the axle load and indicates a greater amount for the samdistance if the

